K.Mandla's blog of Linux experiences

The time has come

I think I will be keeping emacs around for a while. Part of that is because of its line-wrapping ability, which I mentioned yesterday and which makes Charm my blog client of choice, and now because of org-mode, which Mikko was kind enough to mention a few weeks ago.

The net result is this.

It’s hard to explain but easy to understand when you see it in action: I can fold out those starred items and build a hierarchical list, which is basically what happens in Zim, although it looks and feels a lot more like a wiki and not just a text file. But the function is the same for me; I have no needs beyond a way of tracking things I do as I experiment, and this will work perfectly.

So yes, emacs is a bit heavy and I find it a little unintuitive (but I’m learning), but it has two strong points that I feel I need, and as a result it will be on the machine for a while longer.

All this means that after a month of work and experimentation, and a few months more of troubleshooting and tweaking, I think the time has come to start using this machine 24-7, and see what it’s like to set aside the “faster” machines for a week or so.

I’ll have access to the Internet, e-mail, blog … just about everything I use regularly. And for entertainment …

I know at least one project that is taking the idea of an “emacs OS” seriously. Well it’ll be using Ubuntu, but almost everything you do with the computer will be run though emacs; Emacs as a sort of DE. I can’t wait to see how it’ll turn out…but it highlights how extensible emacs really is. :P

Back on topic: Amazing as always, though I wonder… how did Win 95 which come with the comp (iirc) run? Must admit, it provided a better graphical experience. I’ll say the same about distros like DSL…, sure it shows how Linux can run on old hardware, but ..it still looks uglier than Win 95. Pity about outdated software and various security vulnerabilities though.

Well, to be honest … I don’t remember. I recall it taking a long time to boot, and I know for a fact the machine was 98 percent useless with it since it couldn’t get on the internet (I know of no drivers for wireless cards for Windows 95, but I didn’t look very hard). After that though, I equate Win95’s performance with something less than IceWM. Nothing beautiful, quick for the machine it was running on, but little more to speak of than that. It is, sometimes, a shame that Microsoft abandoned it. But I wasn’t in any hurry to make it work though. :|

This computer has nothing on my Psion 3a. 512KB RAM, and Ive never seen it use more than 256KB. Word processing, Calculator, CompuServe (lol not really), Agenda, File Manager, and a programming environment. All using less than 512KB RAM. <3 Symbian